The present invention relates generally to a processor system. It particularly relates to a method and system for processor dynamic power control based on thermal sensitivity.
Power consumption in current high-performance processor systems often leads to high temperatures for the processor components. The high processor temperatures, especially for processors using surface-mounted technology, leads to power feedback due to failures (e.g., shorts) produced, in the processor circuits. Commonly, processor systems operate with two high temperature limits, an electrical maximum power limit, and a maximal thermal design point (maximal TDP). The lower limit, the maximal TDP, is a temperature threshold where if processor thermal (relating to heat) temperature exceeds this threshold, then the processor may continue to function but could encounter problems if operating above this temperature for any substantial amount of time. The upper limit the electrical, maximum power limit, is a temperature limit where the processor will malfunction if attempting to operate above this limit. Therefore, processor systems must reduce power consumption in response to nearing these high temperature limits to avoid malfunction. A traditional method was to completely shut down the processor (stop-clock method) allowing the processor temperatures to cool below the high temperature limits before the processor is re-started. However, completely shutting down the processor and having to watt for re-start severely degrades processor system performance.